Loughborough has become the first university in the UK to feature authentic student reviews on its website. Working with StudentCrowd, an independent student review service, Loughborough has set up a direct feed to pull through in real time ratings and comments about the university from its site.

A delegation from Chandigarh University in India was welcomed onto campus at Glasgow Caledonian University to formally sign a renewed memorandum of understanding between the two institutions. Meanwhile, Arts University Bournemouth has established new links with leading Indian design institutions after a visit to New Delhi. The delegation from AUB took part in an event promoting design education that was hosted by the British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith.

The University of Derby has signed a memorandum of understanding with Advance HE, making it the first higher education institution in the country to commit to embedding the agency’s best practice framework into all its programmes.

Uncertainty was the dominant theme in last week's HE news, and it looks like the sector can expect more of the same into the New Year, says Ross Renton, Pro Vice-Chancellor for students at the University of Worcester, in the third of our weekly HE news reviews.

MPs to probe value for money in higher education

The House of Commons education select committee has launched an inquiry into value for money in higher education.

The inquiry will examine the use of graduate outcomes data, social justice and progression of disadvantaged students in higher education, and the quality of teaching across institutions, it said.

The move comes after the annual Higher Education Policy Unit and the Higher Education Academy student experience study this year found that just 35 per cent of studemts believed their HE experience represented "good" or "very good" value for money. The number of students saying their university was "poor" or "very poor" value has almost doubled in five years.

The Committee added that it would also look into the variations in quality of teaching in higher education institutions and the effectiveness of the Teaching Excellence Framework in recognising this.

Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Education Select Committee, said:

"Over recent months there has been increasing public attention on the costs to students and to the taxpayer of higher education. The public scrutiny of vice-chancellor pay has raised wider questions about value for money.

"In our inquiry we want to examine to what extent the individual student and the taxpayer receives value for money for this considerable financial investment. Do we benefit from increased productivity from successful graduates? Do students see a greater dividend throughout their careers as a consequence of their degree?

"Social justice and the goal of improving young people’s lives and help them progress on the ladder of opportunity should be fundamental to the mission of our universities. We want to explore how far our universities are delivering a good quality service for their students and the extent to which the high salaries of vice-chancellors are linked to positive student outcomes."